A standard .50 caliber armor piercing bullet includes a copper jacket, a lead nose, and a tool steel core. The tool steel core is disposed behind the lead nose, and the copper jacket extends around the tool steel core to engage rifling of the gun barrel during firing.
When such an armor piercing bullet is fired at a target, the bullet may strike the target with an impact velocity which exceeds 800 meters per second. At such a speed, the bullet is capable of penetrating rolled homogenous armor (RHA) to a depth of approximately 2.9 cm.